These people are truly sick

6 Oct, 2023 08:43

Ex-Zelensky aide backs call to conscript youth

Young men make great soldiers thanks to better health and less life experience, Aleksey Arestovich has claimed

Older men have neither the physical condition nor themalleability of psycheto become good foot soldiers, so conscripting the young instead is a sound strategy, a former senior aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said.

In an interview on Tuesday, Aleksey Arestovich, who is a popular commentator for the Ukrainian online media, endorsed recommendations made by former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, who last week urged Kiev to draft the youth to fight Russia.

“The average health level of a Ukrainian foot soldier, who is well over 45 years old and is close to 50, is not sufficient for the typical battlefield exertions,” the former presidential advisor stated.

Russia’s dominance in surveillance and artillery means that only small squads operating on foot have a chance to gain territory, and such assault teams by necessity need to be universally in good physical shape, Arestovich explained.

Older people also cannot be manipulated into performing the boot camp drillsthat turn civilians into troops, he added. Younger people can be goaded by stoking their ego and challenging them into “pissing contests” with each other.

“What is needed are wolves, who are 25 to 28, who want to fight and enjoy that, who still have things to prove,” Arestovich claimed.

Arestovich remarked that at this point even units that used to be predominantly composed of volunteers, such as the nationalists’ favored Azov battalion, have few people who asked to go to the fighting, with many of the soldiers having been mobilized.

The ex-official previously predicted that every Ukrainian man would have to go to the frontline eventually. The 48-year-old has no military service-age sons and reportedly currently resides in the US.

Last month, the Ukrainian authorities relaxed eligibility criteria for draftees to allow for people with certain physical and mental conditions. Videos circulating onlinehave shown conscription officials hunting down able-bodied mento fulfill mobilization plans.

Wallace, who resigned his position in the UK government in August, wrote an opinion piece in The Telegraph last Sunday. He urged Zelensky to review the scale of mobilization and a purported “desire to preserve the young for the future” so that the army could “finish the job.”

Moscow has accused the US and its allies of using Ukrainians as “cannon fodder” in a proxy war against Russia. President Vladimir Putin estimated on Thursday that Kiev had lost over 90,000 people since June, when it began a much-heralded counteroffensive.

(Sounds like they are not really concerned about the depopulation of the country.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/584145-arestovich-military-draft-ukraine/

6 Oct, 2023 11:07

Ukraine blames Russia for targeting funeral ceremony

A purported missile strike has killed 51 people, officials have said

Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of killing 51 people who were reportedly attending a soldier’s funeral in a small community in Kharkov Region on Thursday.

Local officials described the victims as residents of Groza, a village with a reported population of 330. They had apparently come to a small establishment that was hosting a private ceremony for a local man who had been killed early in the conflict with Russia. His remains were recently exhumed and brought to Groza for reburial, according to local media.

Groza is located some 30km west of Kupyansk, a major flashpoint between Ukrainian and Russian forces on the northern part of the frontline. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry claimed the strike involved a Russian ground-launched Iskander missile.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on the accusations. However, when asked about the Groza incident on Friday, Kremlin spokesmanDmitry Peskov reiterated Moscow’s stated military policy of not targeting civilian sites. Russian attacks “are only delivered at military infrastructure and locations where troops and military leadership congregate,” he said.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky branded the tragedy a “demonstratively brutal crime” and an “intentional terrorist attack” by Russia, offering no evidence of the claim.

During the incident, the Ukrainian president was attending a conference in Granada, Spain. He sought to secure continued military and civilian assistance for Kiev from EU partners at the event amid uncertainty that one of Ukraine’s largest benefactors, the US, may not pass more Kiev-related funding through Congress in light of recent political turmoil. In his remarks, which centered on condemning Russia’s military operation, he stressed the importance of his mission to rally European support.

The Ukrainian leader had previously blamed Russia for several deadly incidents, although the evidence did not support such conclusions. Last month, he accused Moscow of deliberately striking a marketplace in the Donbass city of Konstantinovka. The attack happened on the day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Kiev and showcased “the audacity of evil,” according to Zelensky.

The New York Times later reported that evidence discovered by its investigators indicated that the missile was Ukrainian. The newspaper said the footage of the strike, forensic evidence at the scene, and eyewitness reports of a Ukrainian launch from a nearby location all pointed toward a mishap by Kiev’s forces.

Last week, Polish authorities confirmed that a Ukrainian missile was responsible for the deaths of two Polish farmers in a border village last November. Zelensky claimed from the start that the incident was a Russian attack on “collective security” and insisted that Moscow was guilty despite an announcement from Warsaw early into the probe that Ukrainian troops likely fired the projectile.

(Strange story was there really a funeral? And Russia saying they only target military targets. My guess is the funeral was only cover for a military op)

https://www.rt.com/russia/584149-groza-village-missile-strike/

6 Oct, 2023 08:01

Key EU state opposes fast-tracking Ukrainian membership

Outgoing Dutch PM Mark Rutte insists Kiev still has to meet“thousands of conditions” before joining the bloc

Setting a specific date for EU expansion is unwise, warned Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as he openly opposed Brussels’ plans to admit countries such as Ukraine to the bloc by the end of the decade.

“It’s not a question of when countries are ready; it’s a question of whether countries are ready,” Rutte was quoted as saying by the NOS news outlet on Thursday on the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit.

Rutte’s comments come after European Council President Charles Michel stated that he wanted Kiev to become part of the EU by 2030 as the bloc tries to prevent Russia and China from expanding their influence in Europe.

But the outgoing Dutch PM has insisted that the accession of countries into the union should be done according to the rule of law, which means that Kiev “must meet thousands of conditions to join,” and no concessions could be made on these requirements.

Additionally, Rutte stressed that even if all the countries that want to join the EU, such as Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and the Balkan states, managed to meet all the requirements, the EU itself is not yet ready to accept new members.

“The EU has 27 member states, and if more countries are added, decision-making and all kinds of other matters will become even more complicated,” Rutte said.

Previously, doubts about Kiev’s EU membership were also raised by the former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who said in an interview with Germany’s Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Thursday that Brussels “should not make any false promises to the people in Ukraine.”

Juncker stressed that Ukraine is “a country that is corrupt at all levels of society” and cannot be allowed into the bloc unless it first conducts “massive” reforms.

Meanwhile, even Ukrainian officials have pointed out that Kiev needs to deal decisively with corruption in the country as it has also hindered Ukraine from receiving financial aid from abroad to help in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

After the US Congress failed to include any funds for Kiev in its latest government spending bill, Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak stated that “the biggest (public) complaint about [Ukraine] is corruption.”

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that with the holdup in US aid for Ukraine, concerns are growing in Kiev about the possibility of the country facing afinancial shortfall, jeopardizing the payment of its civil servants. A Ukrainian official suggested that Ukraine might manage its finances through October and possibly November and December, but sustaining operations beyond that point could become increasingly challenging.

(Why is any country responsible for the leaderships mismanagement of their country? Dowd or another financial analyst said a week or so ago, they has $45 billion in a fund and keep on adding to it. If the EU and NATO allow them in, it will only be because all that make the decisions get huge kickbacks of their own country’s money. Just nuke the territory and get it over with, but save the innocent first. If its nuked, the land can’t be inhabited for many years.)

https://www.rt.com/news/584146-rutte-oppose-ukraine-eu/